In 1874 a group of painters held there first exhibition at a shop owned by the photographer Nadar, in the Boulevard Des Capucines. The group had come together in 1863 when there father figure Edouard Manet outraged the Paris world with his Luncheon on the grass - A painting of a naked woman picnicking with two fully clothed men. The subject was an affront to bourgeois taste and it was turned down by the selection panel of the Academie Des Beaux Arts as unsuitable for showing in the annual exhibition of the Salon. Later in another exhibition especially for the impressionists the same painting caused another stir but Manet was hailed as a hero for the young artists of the time. See a video about the impressionists

For all but a few of the younger artists there were two overriding goals - to paint the everyday world around them and to work in the open air. It was Monet who was initially most interested in painting landscapes, others soon followed by example, the impressionists would often work together at Bougival and Argenteuil on the seine in the forest of Fontainebleau or on the coast of Normandy. They would regularly travel to Paris to try and sell there work and they found it very hard to make a living because not only was there work barred from the official salon but the expensive galleries also refused to stock there paintings. See a Video excerpt about Monet

They had there patrons who supported them with art materials in return for there paintings but it was against a background of penury, obscurity and growing frustration that the artists had conceived the idea of a group exhibition in an attempt to bring there work directly to the attention of the buying public. Only Manet refused to exhibit with them, he was exhausted by the ten year of criticisms and personal abuse, and no longer wished to expose his work to ridicule. Slowly after around twelve years of torment they started winning critical acclaim Renoir even won approval from the academic establishment with a painting prominently displayed at the 1879 Salon. If the other impressionists were still not entirely accepted by the art buying world there paintings were now selling in reasonable quantities through more progressive dealers such as Durand-Ruel who in 1886 staged a more successful exhibition in New York. See a Video excerpt about Manet

Artist Renoir had begun attending the studio of Marc-Gabriel-Charles Gleyer, a Swiss teacher who offered practical instruction to a number of artists. At the same time Renoir enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and was there from 1 April 1862 until a couple of years later. In 1863 Renoir may have submitted a work to the official Salon (an annual exhibition of paintings chosen by the jury) but if he did it seams that the jury refused it. At the Salon the following year Renoir had his first success - the painting entitled Esmeralda Dancing with her Goat around a Fire Illuminating the Entire Crowd of Vagabonds, which he destroyed after the exhibition.

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